Humana Inc.

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), founded in 1961 in Louisville, Kentucky, is a business corporation that markets and administers health insurance. With a set of 11.5 million customers in the United States, the company is the largest in terms of profit in the state of Kentucky and a member of the Fortune 100 list. It also has a market capitalization of more than 13 billion dollars, $25.2 billion in revenue and has 26,000 employees across North America. Humana markets its health insurance in all 50 US states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, and also has financial interests in Western Europe.

History

1961-1993: Hospitals and nursing homes

The company was founded by David A. Jones, Sr. and Wendell Cherry as a nursing home owner in 1961. Then called Extendicare, it grew to be the largest company of its kind in the United States, to this activity aside and focus on the purchase of hospitals in 1972. It became the largest hospital company in the world in the 1980s.

The company name changed to Humana Inc. in 1974. Humana experienced tremendous growth in the years to come, partly as a result of the takeover of American Medicorp Inc. in 1978, which resulted in the the company will double in size. During the second half of the 1970s, the company focused its efforts on a strategy of rapid construction and opening of hospitals in one month. During this construction boom, Humana developed the double aisle model for hospital construction. This highly efficient design reduced the distance between patients and nurses by locating the restroom inside the building with patient rooms surrounding the perimeter.

Humana brought pioneering artificial heart research by Dr. Robert Jarvik and Dr. William DeVries, inventor and surgeon of the first heart of this type implanted at the University of Utah in 1982, to create the Humana Heart Institute in Louisville in 1985.

During the last decade of the XX century, Humana separated its hospitals from its health insurance operations.

1984-present: Health Insurance

During the development of the US healthcare system in the 1980s, Humana created and began to market health insurance. On the other hand, in 1998, the United Healthcare group tried to acquire the company, however the The effort failed when United's quarterly losses of nearly $1 billion were disclosed.

In 2001, Humana partnered with Navigy, Inc. (a subsidiary of fellow insurance carrier Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association of Florida, Inc.) to launch Availity, a service that facilitates transactions between medical professionals of Florida, users of health plans and insurers.

In 2005, the company entered into a business agreement with the Virgin group, offering financial incentives to policyholders to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

The Business Health Care Group of Southeast Wisconsin has selected Humana as a managing partner to help reduce healthcare costs.

In 2006, Humana launched RightSource, a mail-order mail-order pharmacy service that operates throughout the US.

Acquisitions

The following list represents some of the largest acquisitions made by Humana since 1990 in the US.